Shopping Mall to Sustainability

Sep 8

I grew up in the golden age of the shopping mall. The fabrics and styles of the 1980s and early ’90s used a lot of velour and spandex, with padded shoulders and lots of unnatural, plastic-feeling elements. Organic clothing wasn't really a thing yet, and I definitely didn’t know anything about sustainability or how clothing can impact the environment. I do remember, though, that when I got to college, I dressed less colorfully—kind of my personal backlash to all the neon and unnatural hues of my youth.

I went to Denison University, which is located in a tiny town called Granville in the middle of rural Ohio. I spent my last year living off-campus in one of three log cabins (!) in a small, student-run community called the Homestead, centered around environmentally conscious living. It was started to teach kids about world hunger and how to live more sustainably. We lived off the grid, using solar power from a car battery for lighting, and wood stoves for heat and cooking in our communal kitchen with only cold running water. With this kind of immersion, I eventually became more aware of how damaging to the environment many clothing industry practices were.

I began to seek out clothing with more natural fabrics like cotton or linen. Yet even decades later, when I started buying clothing for my son Eli, it was often a struggle to find affordable, organic and sustainable options. Because organic is more costly, I only bought it when I could afford it or when it seemed important to his overall health, like when he was a baby.

At Foxlilie we make clothing from hemp, bamboo and a new fiber called lyocell, which comes from discarded wood pulp. I would love to see more of these kinds of materials used in clothing manufacturing today, and I would love to see more stores carry sustainable options. Anyone can make a great-looking product, but we owe it to our future to be on the cutting edge of sustainability — because today’s throwaway culture literally cannot be sustained.

Every year, the average U.S. citizen throws away about 70 pounds of clothing and textiles. This is called post-consumer textile waste (PCTW). About 3.8 billion pounds of it gets recycled annually, but that still represents only 15% of all PCTW. The rest ends up in landfills, and in fact, PCTW accounts for about 5% of landfill space.

I use the term “sustainably designed” to describe how I create clothing to serve multiple functions while meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Clothing that is versatile, durable, and environmentally friendly can be passed down from generation to generation without contributing to an already overburdened system of consumer waste.

When we adapt and grow, we become more sustainable. I want the clothing industry to challenge the current course of consumerism and be a part of the crucial change that needs to happen for the sake of our communities, our planet, our kids and all the future generations that follow.